a long movable beam. Each of the arms of this beam are
of equal length (13 feet), and balance perfectly from the top of the
post. The culprit placed in the seat naturally weighs down that one end
into the water, while the other is lifted up in the air; men, however,
with ropes, caused the uplifted end to rise or fall, and thus obtain a
perfect see-saw. The purchase of the machine is such that the culprit
can be launched forth some 16 to 18 feet into the pond or stream, while
the administrators of the ducking stand on dry land. This instrument was
mentioned in the ancient documents of the borough by various names, as
the cucking-stoole or timbrill, or gumstole."

The latest recorded instance of the ducking-stool being used in England
occurred at Leominster. In 1809, says Mr. Townsend, a woman, Jenny
Pipes, alias Jane Corran, was paraded through the town on the
ducking-stool, and actually ducked in the water near Kenwater Bridge, by
order of the magistrates. An eye witness gave his testimony to the
desert of the punishment inflicted on this occasion, in the fact that
the first words of the culprit on being unfastened from the chair were
oaths and curses on the magistrates. In 1817, a woman named Sarah Leeke
was wheeled round the town in the chair, but not ducked, as the water
was too low. Since this time, the use of the chair has been laid aside,
and it is an object of curiosity, rather than of fear, to any of the
spectators. During the recent restoration of Leominster Church, the
ducking-stool was removed, repaired, and renovated by Mr. John
Hungerford Arkwright, and is now kept at the borough gaol of the
historically interesting town of Leominster.

The early English settlers in the United States introduced many of the
manners and customs of their native land. The ducking-stool was soon
brought into use. Mr. Henry M. Brooks, in his carefully written work,
called "Strange and Curious Punishments," published in 1886, by Ticknor
& Co., of Boston, gives many important details respecting punishing
scolds. At the present time, in some parts of America, scolding females
are liable to be punished by means of the ducking-stool. We gather from
a newspaper report that in 1889, the grand jury of Jersey City--across
the Hudson River from New York--caused a sensation by indicting Mrs.
Mary Brady as a "common scold." Astonished lawyers hunted up their old
books, and discovered that scolding is still an indictable offence in
New Jers